Owl Moon

In the classic Caldecott Medal Award winning “Owl Moon” by author Jane Yolen we see a perfect example of one of the most endearing aspects of childhood – the ability to take simple everyday and normally mundane events and turn them into fodder for brilliant fantasy and adventure. Such is the story of a girl and her father who decide to go owling on a winter night by the light of the owl moon. It was ‘long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling’ the young storyteller informs the readers of this delightful text that won the coveted Caldecott childrens books award in 1988.

What starts as a simple journey with parent and child becomes a fascinating tale of a pair who trudges through deep snow that’s ‘whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl’. As readers of these picture books follow the saga for themselves they are treated to the occasional fox, deer or field mouse that watch quietly as the two pass along the wintry way.

Tales like Yolen’s “Owl Moon” are the stuff that childhood is made of. When Pa imitates the call of an owl, children of all ages will strain their ears in anticipation of the same echoed response that the story’s characters are seeking and they will relish the story just as much as if it were happening to them. The incredibly vibrant watercolor world in this book conjure a realistic replica of New England by the light of the moon.